For long-time fans of the Is CC Declining? thread, the last month has been very dramatic. On June 26th Gillipig announced that we had hit 12798 actives. On the 29th qwert trumped that with 12787s. Later that same day, Agent 86 posted the lowest number ever seen in that thread, 12788. But soon, Agent 86 was back with an edit:

Edit: Less than 24 hours later, it just jumped to 12794

By Monday morning, Brucewar, one of CC's most faithful long-time fans, was able to post:

12819... Back up again

By July 10th there was a Is CC Inclining? thread parodying the original. The numbers went down a bit again in spots... at one point dropping 150 over a couple of days, but overall the trend has been upward. Right now we sit at 13341, the highest number since mid-May.

Has CC finally turned the corner? So much work has been done lately to improve the site, and we can hope that this is starting to pay off. It's too soon to be sure, but I know which side I'm on!

Here at Conquer Club, we have two exciting announcements for you! Firstly, as some of you may have noticed on Facebook, we've joined up with the people at Havoc Boards to bring you a special tournament! I'll be going over a way for you, the members of ConquerClub, to also partner with us to (hopefully) make events like this a reality for your organization as well! Let's get down to it:

Havoc Boards

As part of a recent partnership to help advertise a certainly noteworthy cause, I would like to invite you to participate in our Havoc Boards Tournament! Conquer Club is VERY excited to be teaming up with Havoc Boards for this special tournament. Havoc Boards designs incredible custom gameplay boards, and we think that's pretty awesome. The Havoc Boards Tournament will see 640 players compete over six rounds on some of our popular maps, and we'd like you to take part! The champion of this tournament will win a custom Havoc Board of their own design ($500 value)!

Remember, you must have shared the page before the tournament begins to be eligible to win prizes!

There are several good things to say here. First of all, Bungled Boards/Havoc Games did achieve (actually exceed) their fundraising goal. Second, this is increasing our experience with how to do social media. And third, the Havoc Boards Tournament is now underway (using the Conquer Cup engine.)

Along with the new tournament, there were some concerns that inactive users were being plugged into the tournament to artificially boost our player numbers. Blakebowling refuted these accusations: Subject: Havoc Boards Tournament

blakebowling wrote:Some emails were sent out to members that haven't played in a while announcing the Tournament, those who replied were inserted into the tournament (as well as given instructions on how to play). We're not inflating the scoreboard, but we are looking to bring back some old members.

Welcome back freestyle readers. I've got another Scum Insider for you all, new writer StubbsKVM has a report about his SoC game, and Great-Ollie talks about clans, Canada, and hockey.You Stay Classy, CC.

I have recently started as a student in the SoC. I have played 2 games there so far, of which I was able to win one. I decided that in order to attract more people to the SoC, and to show everybody how it works, I would do a turn-by-turn report on a game. Every turn I will share the map of the current turn, my thoughts on the current situation and how it's different from the last turn. I will also share the plans I will send in to the SoC teachers, and their comments on my plan. At last, I will share the outcome of that plan.

Hope you'll enjoy!

StubbsKVM

Turn 1

StubbsKVM=yellow

ThoughtsWell, it looks like I have a decent position. This setup will allow me to have 4 stacks: 1 on every major continent.My PlanSpoils to turn in: NoneNext spoil set value: 4Do you have a set of spoils? noMy Plans:Deploy 3 on E5Reinforce all from N1 to N2, A12 to A9, E7 to F1.Teachers commentsYes, this looks good.ExecutionObviously this succeeded, as I had no attacks to make.

I have recently started as a student in the SoC. I have played 2 games there so far, of which I was able to win one. I decided that in order to attract more people to the SoC, and to show everybody how it works, I would do a turn-by-turn report on a game. every turn I will share the map of the current turn, my thoughts on the current situation and how it's different from the last turn. I will also share the plans I will send in to the SoC teachers, and their comments on my plan. At last, I will share the outcome of that plan.

Hope you'll enjoy!

StubbsKVM

Turn 2

StubbsKVM=yellow

ThoughtsPurple seems to want South America badly. And looks like Cyan wants Oceania. Both are trying to push green away, so it's likely green will be the easiest target in a few turns. Green and Purple are down on troops compared to the rest.My PlanSpoils to turn in: noneNext spoil set value: 4Do you have a set of spoils? noYour Plans:deploy 2 on N2, 1 on A9attack N4 from N2, adv allreinforce 0Teachers comments your plan looks good to me.ExecutionLost one troop taking Chicago, but I succeeded. Chicago has more attack points, so is better than Edmonton. Additionally, I wanted some room between my Asia and North America stacks. First card is Johannesburg. Not likely I'll get to grab that.

I have recently started as a student in the SoC. I have played 2 games there so far, of which I was able to win one. I decided that in order to attract more people to the SoC, and to show everybody how it works, I would do a turn-by-turn report on a game. every turn I will share the map of the current turn, my thoughts on the current situation and how it's different from the last turn. I will also share the plans I will send in to the SoC teachers, and their comments on my plan. At last, I will share the outcome of that plan.

Hope you'll enjoy!

StubbsKVM

Turn 3

StubbsKVM=yellow

ThoughtsCyan has taken Oceania and seems to be playing very agressive. Green has the weakest position and I'm not close enough to make a kill myself. I don't think anyone is though.My PlanSpoils to turn in: Johannesburg(B)Next spoil set value: 4Do you have a set of spoils? noYour Plans:2 on N4, 1 on F1Attack N5 from N4, move 0Reinforce 0Teachers commentsI actually think you should put only one on NA region. My thinking is this that it looks like you are kind of set up to take red when spoils are right.ExecutionTeacher makes a good point. I attacked E3 from F1 instead of the original plan. No troops lost.

Want to get into the Mafia scene, but don't know how to play or even what it is? Consult these threads: Mafia Information, Mafia and You, and Rules and Terms of Mafia.Too much work? Too lazy to read through everything? No worries, you can always jump right into a game and ask for other players or the game runner to help guide you.

What is "Mafia"?Mafia, for those of you that don't know, is a game that generally takes place in a town, where the townspeople have to determine who the mafia (or "scum") is and lynch them via a majority vote during the day and the mafia try to kill everyone at night and bluff their way out of getting killed by the town.

Advanced Roles and Strategy by safariguy5We may have to call the Ghostbusters for this role.

The Restless Spirit

What is It?A Restless Spirit is a role where the player may continue to vote after death. They usually must PM their role to the mod to avoid influencing the game. This ability may last for a set number of days or until endgame.

ExampleJack is a Restless Spirit. He chooses to vote Alice the day after he was lynched because she led the case on him.

How to Play this RoleRestless Spirits function as a more powerful version of Innocent Child. Knowing their alignment allows the remaining player to see who the dead player feels most strongly is guilty. Alternately, a vote on somebody besides the main case may signal a lack of conviction in the choice for lynch or the possibility of a better target. It can also be used to great effect at endgame to find the last few anti-town roles.

Q. What do you want with us?I want to be the Greatest CC player of all time.

Q. What is Saskatchewan's largest export?Wheat and Pilsner beer.

Q. What's your favourite colour?Black

Q. What's your favourite Baskin-Robbins flavour?Damn this one is hard, i must say cookie dough.

Q. Who's your favourite superhero?Ironman

Q. What was your funniest moment on CC?With out a doubt when my old clan used to play 8 player, freestyle, assassin speed games while we were all on skype. Amazingly we did not split up after some of these lol. We used to laugh so hard.

Q. Seriously?Dead Serious!

Q. You get interviewed before me (#1_stunna)?!OF course i do, I am the Great-Ollie!

Q. Do you think #1_Stunna should be interviewed before HazardZero?I think the next player to be interviewed should be smegal69, he is a special individual.

Q. When you left The Pack, you said that you felt that you could not meet the standards of that clan anymore. So how much did you have to lower your standards to get into Legion?Stupid question. Each clan is different, i had my reasons for leaving and do not feel like getting baited by ex clan members today, thank you.

Q. So what are the Top 3 clans in your book?Kort, Tofu, IA in that order.

Q. What is it with Canada? Canadians are the best people in the world! We love our beer, our women, and our igloo building capabilities.

Q. Is getting flamed by smegal the highlight of your interview?smegal69 has his opinions of me, and he likes to make sure everyone else understands exactly what they are. I just ignore him.

Q. If you could get $1000 a piece for each paw/foot of your favorite pet would you...?No? lol Can i get some of what your on please!

Q. Wouldn't you rather be an American?LOL stupid question. Hell NO!

Q. Do you eat Tim Horton's tuna salad?No

Q. Who has the best coffee: Tim Horton's or Starbucks?I must say i like Starbuck's better.

Q. If Canada is America's hat, what does that make Mexico?LOL i guess it would make Mexico America's Underpants.

Q. What is your favorite map and why?Doodle Earth because i am so good at it!

Q. When you left the pack, did you consider joining the kmhebert and the Grim Reapers instead of Legion?I would have in a heart beat but kmhebert and I are not so tight anymore lol.

Q. Would you rather live with Betiko in a small apartment for a year or go camping with JefJef for a month?Jesus, i have no idea. I think go camping with jefjef, i could just make him disappear if he started acting like jefjef usually does lol.

Q. What clan would you have joined if not Legion?I have burned a lot of bridges sticking up for my fellow Pack members over the years so i am not sure what clans would even consider me lol. Just for fun i will say TSM. They are a great group as well.

Q. If you could create your own super clan which 15-20 members would you pick? Give a reason why you would pick each oneA mix between AKA and Eddie as co leader with Brucewar and Kort members. They would be super awesome!

Greetings Conquer Club clan members and enthusiasts, to another fine edition of the Platoon Report, where once again we've got all the news you need on CC's major clan events! IcePack kicks things off this week with a look at CC4, where the Round of 32 matches are mostly decided at this point. Next up, betiko returns with our first look in a while at the goings on in the Random League. Don't worry, we haven't forgotten about Clan League 5. Qwert has a great summary for us of stats from Phase 1, as well as updated standings for each League. The updated F400 returns to the Platoon Report - and there's a lot of movement throughout the middle of the ranks!

Last but not least, go check out the 3rd 1v1 Clan Challenge Prediction Contest. Entries are being accepted now that the bracket is set - survey the field of clans involved and make your picks here!

RA vs DB: 29-12RA Wins!VioIet led RA to a victory here, going 13-6 at home, and 14-6 away as well (plus taking the tie breaker). A very successful campaign on both sides of the battle brings RA into Contention with PIG!Final Score: 29-12 RA WinsIcePack Predicted: 25-16 RA Wins

WAR vs KNT: 22-19WAR Wins!hmsps leads WAR to a close victory of KNT. They're going to have a battle ahead of them as they move onto face TheMissionary and the crew at MM. Final Score: 22-19 WAR WinsIcePack Predicted: 25-16 WAR Wins

AQOH vs HH: 21-20AQOH Wins!What a battle! These two clans have fought TWICE IN A ROW to a 21-20 finish! AQOH has managed to edge HH out in both battles, barely edging HH out of the competition for the right to move on and face AFOS, the recent CC3 Finalists.Final Score: 21-20 AQOH WinsIcePack Predicted: 22-19 AQOH Wins

Round of 32:Left Side of BracketKORT vs AKA: 29-10KORT Wins!A colorful war that ended in a poetry contest, KORT has moved on as expected vs AKA. Disputed and heated for most of the war, it ended with a permanent forum ban on one of AKA's leaders (eddie2) and a permanent lock on the topic and CD's enforcing martial law score updates. One to remember...oh, and don't forget to check out all the poems that were entered in a contest for a GA Medal!Final Result: KORT AdvancesIcePack Predicted: KORT Advances

TFFS vs VVV: 29-12TFFS Wins!I apologize on behalf of the Dispatch for the misprint on the last CC4 update, which was caught only after the Dispatch had already gone to press . TFFS advances here over VVV and moves onto face KORT in what will likely be, a much calmer war for KORT. TFFS went 14-7 at home, and 15-5 away!Final Result: TFFS AdvancesIcePack Predicted: TFFS Advances

OTP vs LHDD: 30-11OTP Wins!OTP knows how to keep a war interesting, a glance through the thread reveals why LHDD might have been to distracted to focus on the war, as OTP seems to have distracted them temporarily with french maid. Final Result: OTP AdvancesIcePack Predicted: OTP Advances

OSA vs SOH: 20-19Two games remain in this very close war! The winner will face OTP. Its looking currently like OSA will take the war with DS game below: Game 12827660 Quads Das Schloss NCF - Leaning OSAGame 12834732 Quads FNNA NUS - UndecidedLikely Result: OSA AdvancesIcePack Predicted: OSA Advances

TSM vs LOTZ:26-10TSM Wins!A relatively quiet war, there was no monkeying around in the games. TSM will now move onto face MYTH. Final Result: TSM AdvancesIcePack Predicted: TSM Advances

MYTH vs TLW:29-11 FINALMYTH Wins!Similar to TSM vs LOTZ, MYTH took a big lead and never faltered. A rather quiet war that is all but over. It should be interesting to watch TSM vs MYTH as they both came out of Round 32 well positioned and clearly focused. Final Result: MYTH AdvancesIcePack Predicted: MYTH Advances

MM vs WAR IcePack Predicts: MM AdvancesThis war is now starting, slightly delayed due to WAR and KNT being so close for the play in match. Games start on the 14th and the 2nd set exchanged July 28th. WAR qualified for Premier League in CL5, and MM for the Second League. Both have done well recently in their own various corners of the clan world, and I expect either of them could take the match. However, I'm leaning towards the group at MM pulling the win out here.

IA vs LEG: 26-12IA Wins!The assassins infiltrated the Legion's ranks and dispatched of their opponent, quick to the task and will get a short break while MM and WAR fight it out. MM and WAR may want to keep an eye on those assassins, as they will have plenty of time to study both opponents and infiltrate as needed to take down their next foe. Final Result: IA AdvancesIcePack Predicted: IA Advances

Right Side of BracketTOFU receives a bye this round, and will face DYN in Round of 16.Final Result: TOFU Wins CC3 and receives bye (advances)IcePack Predicted: Bye or Match Up, TOFU Advances

GR vs DYN: 13-26DYN Wins!This Dynasty holds onto their lives and tells the Reapers to go find another victim. DYN gets to exact revenge upon GR for their very first war (a loss) to the Repears and move on to the Round of 16 where they will face TOFU. Final Result: DYN AdvancesIcePack Predicted: DYN Advances

PIG vs RA: 4-1PIG are off to the early splash in the pig pen they hoped for, gaining slight advantage early. However the score could even up shortly as RA looks to put the pigs back in their place. This can go either way, but I think PIG's are comfortable in the mud and will muck out the win. Final Result: Not DecidedIcePack Predicting: PIG Advances

FALL vs ATL 17-20Atlantis has Risen! ATL and FALL have clashed, and while its not completed it looks like the final score will be 19-22 in ATL favor. ATL and the ex pirate crew are back in force, and will face the winner of PIG vs RA. Likely Result: ATL AdvancesIcePack Predicted: FALL Advances

AFOS vs AQOH Not Yet StartedIcePack Predicts: AFOS Advances

TNC vs ACE 16-24ACE Wins!A big win for the AOC/EMP merger, ACE against an experienced opponent. ACE had little time to prepare after forming and were unable to get a war in before the event, look for big things from the new clan as they continue in CC4. ACE will have a short break, before they likely face AFOS in the Round of 16 for another big test of their newly merged clan. Final Result: ACE AdvancesIcePack Predicted: ACE Advances

LOW vs YNWA: 34-7LOW Wins!Legends are made by victories such as this. LOW have really pushed forward the last few months and climbing back into fighting form. The Legends will move onto face Imperial Dragoons in the Round of 16 which is sure to be an excellent match up!Final Result: LOW AdvancesIcePack Predicted: LOW Advances

Round 14/17 of the random league been under way for a few days. It's still a bit early to make any forecast of that last round, so this week we will focus on rounds 1-13 to get a better idea of what's going on. Since we have 17 teams in the league, some have played one less round than others.

Here are the updated results of every single round played so far. The rounds that are still in play are marked in yellow with the most up to date results:

Ok, now let's make a few projections. This is obviously going to be a bit of an estimate so it could be subject to some changes. After taking a peak at all the remaining ongoing games, the minichallenges of rounds 1-13 should end up like this:

Consequently, here are my forecasted standings after all games of rounds 1-13 are concluded:

As you can see, LOW, after my projections, has an interesting advantage in the head of the league: 1 point on TOFU with 1 more match-up left in play (4 vs 3 match-ups left)We then have three tied clans that are still contending for the title: OSA, FALL and ID; all 3 of them 5 points behind right now with 4 match-up left as well. Pigs still have a small chance 6 points away but with a win/loss ratio that will be hard to overcome compared to LOW's, a tie in standing points wouldn't give them much chance.

What big clashes are left that could change the balance on the top of the charts?On round 14, FALL is playing OSA. The loser of this would be eliminated from the title race most likely, and if they draw they will probably annihilate each other's chances.

LOW has the following matches remaining: r14 vs SOH; r15 vs TFFS; r16 vs FOED; r17 vs HH. They depend on themselves and won't be facing any of the other top contenders. Will they be victims of surprising results? I know at least 5 clans that will be hoping to see them fail in 2 out of these 4 challenges to still get a chance!

Well things in Premier have not developed too quickly, and many matches are ongoing and unclear. Only IA made a little jump with 3 wins out of 3 match. In next update we will see some more to come

In the Second League, ID, MM and OSA are still undefeated, while TFFS and AOK are still in search of their first wins.

Last but not least, in the Third League only HH and AQOH remain undefeated. UM8 still don't have win, but they have a chance very soon to improve their position.----------------------------------------------------Here's a very early look at the MVP race for each division. The MVP score formula is (Wins + Kills) / Games Played = MVP score. Here are the current leaders in each League!

-----------------------------------------------------New section in the CL5 report will be a transfer list, where once a month we will see who recruited and who lost players.Trade news:For the most recent month, here is a summary of the transfer of players by clan:

Hello friends, and welcome to your favourite part of the Newsletter, "War Games", where you can find information about CC Tournaments, and other stuff in the Tournament scene!

In this issue, amidst our busy work and holiday schedules, our writers faithfully deliver our usuals to the table with DaveH's Tournament Tips and TPA Wrap, as well as my Join This? Or Not! section.

Sadly, I cannot happily advertise any 'Extras! Extras!' for you to read all about in this issue. In fact, the Tournament Section is in dire lack of writers, with just 2 of us on the team. So if you would like to volunteer as a writer for the Tournament Section of the CC Dispatch - whether on a regular or ad-hoc basis - do please drop me a PM! We could definitely do with some help, no matter how small! (:

I recently rescued the 7-Up [TPA3} tournament from peanutman, who in turn rescued the original TPA2 one from barterer2002 who designed it. It poses several interesting problems with automating it as I will explain.

Like many tournament team games it has team members participating in different formats of games. In this case the seven team members 1 - 7 have a quad team (1, 2, 3, 4) a triples team (5, 6, 7), three doubles teams (1, 2 and 3, 4 and 5, 6) and a singles player (7). All play on 1 predetermined map, with the singles player playing the best of 5 games. Points are awarded for winning and additional points for winning in less than 10 rounds.

The teams I arranged into a worksheet as shown:

Click image to enlarge.

I made it a lookup table called "Teams". The team name is followed by the captain and players in the order in which they will play the various formats of the game. Into the thread I posted the team information using the following code in column M for the first team:

The maps I arranged as follows: These are also made into a lookup table called (surprisingly ) "Maps". Note my reminders with yellow backgrounds (which sometimes do not work as some of you players might have noticed )

For the matchups which are as a round robin, the following (well used) table of matchups are used:

Click image to enlarge.

This may look complex but if you scan across the first set of numbers you will see that "1" stays on the same place and the other numbers "rotate" by one in an anticlockwise direction. For the 18 teams it extends to 17 sets of games before it starts repeating. This ensures that every team (as numbered) play against every other team.

I have created 6 sets of similar sets of numbers to account for the different sets of games (Quads, Trips, Doubs 1, Doubs2, Doubs3, Singles). On the "Games" worksheet I have created the matchups as follows. Look at the set of matchups for Round 3:

Click image to enlarge.

For round 3 the matchups are copied as per the table in column labelled "3". There are then lookup instructions from the Team lookup chart to bring the 2 team titles and the players into the table. Note that the map number is used to bring the relevant map name from the"Map" lookup table.

There are 6 sets of data for the 6 types of games - all we now need are the joining instructions - see next issue!

(These "tips" started off as ones that I used to make it a bit easier in managing my own tournaments. Now, I am looking at other types of tournaments and scoring systems by all you innovative TO's out there. So, if you have a unique scoring system that you would like me to have a go at automating, please let me know and I'll be pleased to try and assist. Any queries on the above I'll be glad to respond to of course. Please note that I use Excel 2003, so there may be variation in the menu instructions if you have other versions of Excel)

Flexmaster33's Conquer North America tournament (rescued by mcshanester29) has finished with leehar winning ahead of arno30 with andyplondon and aspalm in joint third place. The final game in Benga's Major Escalating Fog: Killer has finished, and the results will be updated in the next newsletter.

TPA 2 Standings

TPA Season 3Peanut's 3X Double-Elimination Singles tournament (that I rescued from Peanutman) has finished, with uckuki winning from Pixar, SuperWang and Enormastitz. This is his second TPA3 win and with one joint second place, Uckuki's score of 5,572 gives him an impressive lead over Swifte (2,681), mviola (2,475), aussie02 (2,290) and theldin (2,232). But there is a long way to go!It is just about your last opportunity to participate in TPA3! In signup is Know your Settings in North America by therealdeal_37 which is a triples knockout (best of 5). This has been designed with feedback from all of us, so why not join in and see the results of our labours!

And now for our regular look at a selection of the tournaments in sign-ups! As the summer period strolls along, and everyone goes out gallivanting in the sun, the number of tournaments getting started up takes its usual dip. But if you're still interested in having some tournament action at the end of the day, then you can check out some of these tournaments:

If you are one of the rare few players on CC that enjoy Freestyle gameplay, then this rare tournament that features it is definitely one for you to go for! Starting out in groups of 4 players, you battle on the San Marino map four times to gain points to get yourself into the final round. In the finals an 8-player games decides who takes home the tournament win! Simple enough?

This elaborate tournament makes players compete as a team of 4 to win the tournament. A variety of games on Standard, Doubles and Quadruples settings are involved, and each player in the team needs to pull their weight to earn points throughout the 10 events. The team with the most points at the end of the 10 events will be declared the winners of the tournament. There's definitely lots of gameplay styles involved in this tournament, so if you're up for the challenge and excitement involved, then this one is something to go for! What's more, the individual player who earns the most points also stands to win a General Achievement Medal!

This is the last TPA3 tournament left in signup stages, so it's your last opportunity to get involved in the TPA3 season if you haven't already done so, or your last chance to improve your score with this tournament if you're already a part of it! Triples teams go head to head against each other on different maps across the continent of North America, while exposing the teams to almost every possible game setting that CC has to offer. If you don't have a complete team to signup with, fear not! For you can signup as a single and hopefully be able to assemble a team with other interested individuals!

As always we have some great activity in the foundry. Some first time map makers enter the scene, and CC's Greatest Mapmaker, cairnswk, makes his return, dusting off 4 of his next masterpieces which were on hold. Waauw brings us a great review and strategy discussion for the BETA map Conquer 500, and I have asked my outside friend Mas Sue67 to help review some maps for us moving forward, let me apologize in advance.

Why do I like this map?I like that the map is actually complex in it's simplicity. It's easy to read and understand the basics of the map, but strategies are whole other thing. 'Conquer 500' is all about balancing. Many people just focus on one field, either the track or the pit equipment, but that is a grave mistake. Which of course I do enjoy taking advantage of

What is the best strategy for this map?Another great thing about this map is that it can be played with many different settings. And your strategy can variate strongly depending on these settings and other people's tactics. Now it's hard to explain all of this and keep it brief. But I'll give it a go. Here's some advices if people would want to become the next Michael Schumacher on this map:

1v1: In the first round you should concentrate on taking parts of your car so you can immediately grow your bonus. Many people for some reason like uniformity and will firstly attack all fuels for example. This would be a mistake. Best is that with each car you start of by taking a different parts and only then move on to take the rest of the car. This helps in case your opponent takes a pit equipment to bomb you. He won't be able to bomb at once. Next you start balancing your attention by slowly kickin' your opponent off track, taking your full car and bombing the opponent's car. This is a mistake many people make, they like going all the way on just the pit equipment or the track. As a consequence they often either get kicked off track very fast or end up with a larger portion of the track but a way smaller bonus meaning you will slowly take over what you lost and more.

3-8 player standard/terminator: Here you can choose 2 ways to start off, either you drop on crew and attack your cars or you immediately concentrate on track. The first one has the potential advantage of attaining larger bonuses faster, the second one that there is very little chance of you getting kicked off track immediately. When building up you'll notice the players often splitting into 2 groups as a consequence of both luck and their initial choice of strategy. One group will have their entire cars and many troops in pit equipment to bombard all those with no presence there. The other group will focus on track, where they will take bonuses as if they were snakes. All of their territories will link up to each other as a chain. To defend this they will leave troops in their rear segment to protect them. To advance, they'll have another stack as their vanguard in the front segment. The smart choice here is to focus a bit more on track and on the pit equipment, as the track is the key to victory, because of the +40 bonus for holding one in every segment. The track is also the only spot able to attack the winners circle and consequently all the crews. A last advice I'd like to give is that people should keep a reserve-army in their crews. They should do this for 2 reasons: Firstly it'll help protect their crews in case someone moves through the winners circle. Secondly it'll give them the a sort of second chance in case they get kicked off track. They'll be able to move back on track through pit row.

Why should other players play 'Conquer 500'?This map is a typical complex gameplay map, where experience is a very important factor. The more experienced you are, the more bad dices you'll be able to take. You'll notice that often new players will not use their amazing dice rolls in the right way. So come on! Who doesn't want a map able to correct for luck.

Map Name:EthiopiaMapmaker(s):cairnswkNumber of Territories:29Special Features:Buildings What Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made:

Another small map for quick speed games = more choice

Another map of an African country - Ethiopia is not included in CC yet.

a continuation of the small "along the Nile" maps that i had with the Egyptian series

Ethiopian Facts.

Full name: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Population: 86.5 million (UN, 2012)

Capital: Addis Ababa

Area: 1.13 million sq km (437,794 sq miles)

Major languages: Amharic, Oromo, Tigrinya, Somali

Major religions: Christianity, Islam

Life expectancy: 58 years (men), 62 years (women) (UN)

Monetary unit: 1 Birr = 100 cents

Main exports: Coffee, hides, oilseeds, beeswax, sugarcane

GNI per capita: US $370 (World Bank, 2011)

Internet domain: .et

International dialling code: +251

Overview.

Ethiopia is Africa's oldest independent country and its second largest in terms of population. Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini's Italy, it has never been colonized.It has a unique cultural heritage, being the home of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church - one of the oldest Christian churches - and a monarchy that ended only in the coup of 1974.It served as a symbol of African independence throughout the colonial period, and was a founder member of the United Nations and the African base for many international organizations.Ethiopia - Orthodox Church About two thirds of Ethiopia's people are Christian, and most of those follow the Orthodox faithEthiopia has suffered periodic droughts and famines that lead to a long civil conflict in the 20th Century and a border war with Eritrea.In the first part of the 20th Century Ethiopia forged strong links with Britain, whose troops helped evict the Italians in 1941 and put Emperor Haile Selassie back on his throne. From the 1960s British influence gave way to that of the US, which in turn was supplanted by the Soviet Union.

The fact that are of your posts are dated June 16th is very deceptive!

Agreed!

Yeah, that's the date the template was made. Unfortunately, when you use the Copy Topic command it copies it intact including the date stamps. We put the correct date in the title; that's the best we can do.

Before this we used to squeeze the whole newsletter into a single post, and we had a dynamic template that could be used to create new posts with the current date. Unfortunately, the newsletter has outgrown the single-post format, and Move Topic and Copy Topic are the only tools we have for working with a multi-post thread.

We do have a newer template that we're going to use for Issue 100, so it will be fairly recent, but after that the templates will gradually get older and older again.

After creating your topic, lock it so no one can post in it (otherwise they will get to be the OP), create new post (can just say "test" or something.) Merge first and second (last) post together, but use the time stamp of the second where it gives the option. Reopen thread. I sometimes use a reverse of this if I am transferring ownership of a thread to someone.

No guarantees it will work on this type of forum, but there you go. Worth a shot!

EDIT: Since you have more than one post, you may have to do that for each of them. Thought it was one post that had the wrong timestamp.